ORLANDO, Fla — In Central Florida, long term care facilities are preparing to face the effects of Hurricane Ian, which Spectrum News 13 weather experts say will intensify as it heads north through the Gulf of Mexico throughout this evening. 

Understaffing and pay for long-term care workers

The storm will hit long term care facilities already burdened by short-staffing, which long-term care workers and advocates say will strain staffers.   

Coy Jones, regional political director for SEIU 1199, which is the healthcare worker's union representing long term care workers in the state, told Spectrum News that the union’s focus is on communicating with workers to ensure their safety. 

“Lots of our members don’t necessarily earn enough to evacuate [and] pay for a hotel,” she said.

Workers who care for individuals enrolled in Medicaid managed long-term care are set to receive a wage bump to $15 an hour on Oct. 1, a measure the union lobbied for earlier this year, in part to combat short staffing.

Andrecka Wells, a laundry attendant at Rosewood Health and Rehabilitation Center said she hopes the pay increase will encourage people to sign onto jobs at long-term care facilities. 

“Not everybody can live off of certain incomes,” she said. “You’re in here sweating and caring and providing, and just being more hands-on, you expect more appreciation and a little more money.” 

In a letter to Gov. Ron DeSantis, Florida Assisted Living Association (FALA) – a lobby of long-term care providers in the state – asked the Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) to push back the date for the wage hike until the end of the year. 

“FALA’s board of directors met yesterday afternoon and since the new Medicaid rates have not yet been posted, they unanimously voted to request consideration from you, the Legislature and AHCA to allow Medicaid providers to sign the supplemental wage agreement/attestation form within sixty (60) days from the date the rates are posted instead of by October 1, 2022,” wrote Veronica Catoe, FALA Chief Executive Officer, in the Sept. 20 letter. The state has not yet publicly announced whether it will grant FALA the 60 day extension. 

Keeping generators running in long term care facilities

After Hurricane Irma devastated parts of Florida in 2017, power outages around the state hit nursing homes hard. According to an analysis by JAMA Network, deaths rose 25 percent in those facilities in the wake of the hurricane – including the tragic deaths of 12 residents in a nursing home in Broward County. 

In response to the overwhelming number of nursing home deaths in 2017, the state now requires long-term care facilities to maintain a back-up generator. According to AHCA, state inspectors have visited 296 long-term care facilities with a history of non-compliance; the state now reports every facility is equipped with a generator. 

In a Sept. 27 speech, Gov. Ron DeSantis announced that across the state, all long term care facilities had generators on-site, an important safety measure in the event of power outages. “100 percent are reporting generators on site…and we are happy about that,” said the governor.